Ellisville mayor impeached, vows to fight

ELLISVILLE, Mo. (KSDK) - After a year-long battle that started not long after he was elected, the Ellisville City Council voted 5 to 1 to remove Mayor Adam Paul from office Monday night - and Paul is vowing to fight his impeachment in court.

After closing arguments, but before the decision was rendered, Paul walked out of the impeachment hearings saying he "couldn't take it anymore."

The council brought a variety of charges against Paul, and after hearing the evidence voted to drop some of the allegations.

But council members did find Paul guilty of trying to exercise more power than his office afforded - wrongfully giving orders to city employees, doing city business outside of public meetings, and lacking an ability to competently run city meetings.

Paul maintains the council wants him out of office because the developer of a controversial Wal-Mart wants more tax breaks from the city for another project. However, he declined to testify or even have his attorneys offer a defense in the hearing.

"This is a dark day when we have to go through a process like this," said Councilman and mayor pro tem Matt Pirrello after the decision. "This is certainly not anything we would ever want to do. Certainly something we would never plan for," said Pirrello.

As he walked out of the hearing before the council's official decision to remove him Paul said, "There's so much more to the story. I look forward to my day in court -- a real court instead of this kangaroo court procession that's going on right now."

The Council Votes

The Ellisville City Council voted 5-1 Monday to impeach Mayor Adam Paul.

Paul was accused of abusing his power and breaking the law while in office. He has repeatedly denied the allegations and says a disagreement over a new Walmart is the reason some council members want to impeach him.

NewsChannel 5's Casey Nolen was at the hearing and updated the story all night long on Twitter.

Nolen says after his attorney's closing argument, Paul and his team got up and walked out saying they didn't have to listen to the council tarnish his "good name."

The City Council voted 3-3 on motion to drop the charge against Paul alleging he asked for a gun and badge. The tie will remain.

The council dropped a charge against Paul for misuse of a city message board for an event.

They voted 5-1 guilty on individual charges against Paul on five counts involving exceeding authority. They also voted 6-0 that he is guilty of incompetence in running meetings.

The one council member who did not vote to impeach Paul did vote in favor of some of the other charges.

The City of Ellisville is now without a mayor. The City Council will have to appoint a new person to the position, but there's no word on when that will happen.